October! Scary times, and I'm not talking about Halloween. This is the time of the year when things start to slow down. The “season,” which this year was blessed by great weather and relatively low gas prices, brought some much-needed tourist dollars to the local businesses. Many had a pretty good year – I hope they earned enough to keep on going – but there are some around us that rely on year-rounders to keep their doors open. They are not so lucky.

Just this week a major car dealership than can trace its roots back over 50 years closed its doors on the Cape. A cafeteria-style restaurant that fed a moderate percentage of our seniors a late lunch/dinner, turned off its stoves. Just up the street near the rotary, a new, state-of-the-art building remains stillborn; the tenant it was built for went belly up before it could open its door to sell big-screen TV's and computers. In the Airport Plaza a building that was a successful eatery and saloon for a half century has shuttered as well, and behind it a local mainstay of a steakhouse has been closed for what seems a decade.

Some might shrug their shoulders and say it’s no wonder these businesses are gone. America turned its back on Lincoln-Mercury as well as other domestic automobiles, and dealerships have closed around the country because of lack of demand for a few years now. The Old Country Buffet, although a price point bargain, really served mediocre food, albeit in endless amounts, that people decided wasn't worth even the cheap price no matter how many times you could make the trip back to serving tables. The building that used to house the Wianno Grille is old and has some leasing restrictions that makes it undesirable to many a potential business owner, and the former site of Mitchell's steakhouse also needs major renovations to its infrastructure and also sits on lease-restricted land.

But are these businesses the canary in the mineshaft? Do they foretell what is coming even though we were reassured last week that the recession that slowed our national economy actually ended 14 months ago? Phew, I'm glad somebody finally got around to telling me that we are out of the financial deep woods because you know I've been holding back on making any big financial moves. Not!

A trip down Main Street shows a pretty vibrant scene these days, but about every fifth business is food-related. I don't know about you but me and my friends are not going out to eat as much as we did 10 or 15 years ago. Are all those menu-based business plans flawed? They can't all be supported.

In the past, a closed business sooner or later was replaced by a new one that represented an entrepreneur’s dream. There are signs that might be becoming harder to do.

The construction going on at a fever pitch is backed by federal dollars. The new flight tower at the airport. The new sewer work being done on Route 28 and Lincoln Road. All money that is coming from above, but even that is shaky because you have to wonder where the feds are getting the green. Here's a tip. Find out how to get in on the money-printing business, because there is a dollar that seems never to have an end.

We are being left on our own for the most part by the government. The tax revenue is flat. The money that the feds used to dole out to the states for things like education and infrastructure is now seeping to the states instead of the torrential flow of years ago. Likewise the state doesn't have the deep pockets to deal out money to the towns for the schools, fire and police and other services we have become used to.

Fee for usage is the mantra. If you want Johnny to get to school you have pony up a couple of a hundred bucks for him to ride the bus. Want your childto play a sport? There's another fee. Keep your wallet open for fee after fee after fee. The even tougher fee is the escalating tax bill.

Where will it end? The truth of the matter is, it will not.

If you don't believe we are walking a tightrope without a safety net, take a look across the town line to Yarmouth. Over there there has been a fight to the death between taxpayers and the town employees whether to man the fire station, the classroom, or the library reading room. So far residents have said no!

Tighter and tighter the town's belt has been cinched; pretty soon, that belt is going to snap and the town's fiscal pants will embarrassingly fall to the ground.

For the middle class with children the situation looks bleak. You work harder and harder for what appears to be less and less and everything from bottled water to a bag of potatoes costs more.

I don't have an answer. I don't see anyone at any level of government that does. So I, like many, rant. Each day we trudge on trying to think of things to keep our minds off the sad situation around us. Every once in a while, we rant.

Damn Red Sox! Now you are out of the pennant race. In past years, we could depend on you to keep us distracted through the month of October. Now we are on our own, but I guess we already knew that.